The General Assembly agreed on September 10, 2014 that the proposal of the Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) would be the main basis for a concise set of sustainable development goals that will encapsulate a truly transformative post-2015 development agenda. Other inputs, such as the intergovernmental negotiating process at the UNGA's 69th session will also be considered. Japan, the EU and Australia are also encouraging the inclusion of the report of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts [...]
Sustainable Development & Human Rights - Archive
The search for accountability in development agendas
„Accountability is only meaningful if the powerful can be brought into account” says Roberto Bissio of the civil society network Social Watch in a recent article. In order to achieve sustainable development, global accountability mechanisms have to change radically. Under the status quo, “mutual accountability” is practiced as oversight of donors and creditors over developing countries. Genuine accountability, however, would also include the developed nations’ commitments to human rights and environmental treaties and their pledges to give 0.7% of their [...]
Public-Private-Partnerships have become a mainstream development model in recent years. On the one hand, after the financial crisis contributions from the private sector are envisaged to fill the gap of decreasing official development assistance from states. On the other hand, an increasing share of development finance is channeled to businesses and financial institutions. NGOs criticize that private sector development priorities are not aligned with national development strategies and emphasize the conflict of interests between making profits and reducing poverty and [...]
After thirteen sessions, the Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) made an important step forward towards a global sustainable development agenda last week in New York. It formulized a 24-page "outcome document" that includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals, broken down into 169 targets. Once again, conflicts about the means of implementation (MOI) of the SDGs arose between member states in the final hours of the negotiations. The tense climate in the discussions revealed skepticism and suspicion on [...]
On Saturday 19th of July the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals concluded negotiations and submitted a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to the United Nations General Assembly. Though the SDGs will be ultimately negotiated in September 2015, the proposal by the Open Working Group will have a big influence on the final set of goals. The SDGs will supersede the Millennium Development Goals and encompass a broad spectrum of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental. Yesterday [...]
Development aid is being redefined. Before the new UN Development Goals (Post-2015 Agenda) can be determined, the industrialized countries of the OECD wish to redefine which financial flows count as development aid. In a new article, Swiss coalition Alliance Sud analyzes propsoals for a new ODA (Official Development Assistance) standard, which would be used to determine whether donor countries are fulfilling their pledges to allocate .7% of their GNI to development assistance. So far, NGO criticism of the new measurement [...]
A guide to environmental-social budgeting
International development policy is at a crossroads. By September 2015, governments plan to adopt a Post-2015 Development Agenda – an agenda that is supposed to shape the fundamental priorities, goals and strategies for development policy beyond 2015. In parallel, governments have agreed to develop a set of Sustainable Development Goals integrating all dimensions (social, economic and environmental) of sustainable development and being applicable to all countries in the world. Forming one coherent Post-2015 Agenda, including the SDGs, affects all policy [...]
"Means and Ends"
Prologue
Monitoring is only meaningful if the powerful are held to account
Some 4,000 years ago, King Hammurabi had the laws of his domain between the Tigris and Euphrates carved in stone and placed in front of his palace. The laws were written in the plain language of the people, not in the arcane idiom of the priests, so that everybody could understand them. They were not engraved on clay, so they could not be changed at will, and they [...]
By Ranja Sengupta and Bhumika Muchhala*
Means of Implementation remains the most fiercely contested issue in the negotiations of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
With the release of the Co-Chairs’ revised version of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ‘Zero Draft’ on 30 June, the intergovernmental negotiations during the final session of the Open Working Group (OWG) in mid-July becomes even more critical. The OWG Co-Chairs are Ambassadors Macharia Kamau [...]
Why gender is crucial for a fair tax system
The latest report of the British NGO Christian Aid “Taxing Men and Women: why gender is crucial for a fair tax system” deals with the different effects of tax systems in men and women as well as possibilities how prudent fiscal and tax policy can contribute to gender equality. Whereas a lot of literature exists on the consideration of gender aspects on the spending side of national budgets, this report marks a first step to analyze state revenues with regard [...]
The negotiations of the Open Working Group (OWG) on a draft of goals and targets for the Post-2015 Agenda has reached its final phase at the 12th Session on 16-20 June in New York. Discussions were raised with respect to an inquality goal, which was included as a stand alone goal in the zero draft after the last session of OWG. However, an unofficial release of a new set of goals by the Co-Chairs on 16 June merges poverty reduction [...]
Aldo Caliari, Director of the Rethinking Bretton Woods Project, argues in an article published by the United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service (UN-NGLS) that financial and monetary reform should be a fundamental part of post-2015 development agenda. Taking this into consideration, the new agenda was a political opportunity to avoid following the imperfect path of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and to include necessary means of implementation. On top of that, Caliari presents thoughts on key areas like financial regulations and [...]
One day after NGO representatives were escorted out of the 12th Session of the Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by security staff, the global women’s network Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) together with other partners from Major Groups and Stakeholders wrote an Open Letter to the OWG Co-chairs and all Member States. The broad alliance of civil society organizations (CSO) critically stated that closing the session to them without providing a clear [...]
The Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) asks whether the post-2015 development proposal will meet a Human Rights Litmus Test. The test, established by Post-2015 Human Rights Caucus, a global coalition of different organizations and co-convened by CESR, is a tool that evaluates current proposals of the Open Working Group according to existing human rights norms, standards and commitments by means of eight key questions. Following this, the ‘roadmap for embedding human rights’ sets out detailed criteria linked to [...]
STAND WITH US, OR STEP ASIDE
In a common declaration, many different Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), including NGOs from the global South and North alike, express their growing dissatisfaction with the current direction of the negotiations since the Warsaw Climate Conference in November last year. They demand serious actions by the member states of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was underlined by a protest during the climate negotiation in Bonn last week. Here, they call for increasing public support for climate action [...]
Unpacking the Data Revolution at the Country Level
Discussions about a successful follow-up framework for the Millennium Development Goals that is shaped by country conditions influence the current international development agenda. In this context the demand for a “data revolution” is increasing in policy circles. A new “Post-2015 data test”, established by The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), The North-South Institute (NSI) and Southern Voice, contributes to this effort, while enhancing accessibility of information for governments, decision-makers and citizens. Using this information may help to track development progress [...]
A Contribution to the SDG Debate
The German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) published a policy paper that deals with the correlation between human development and environmental change within Earth system boundaries. It indicates that the post-2015 process offers an opportunity to incorporate both dimensions in an integrative strategy for sustainable development. In doing so, WBGU refers to the so-called planetary guard rails, which have to be taken into account in the SDGs, to limit global environmental change and at the same time find a [...]
As the Millennium Development Goals come to a close and kick off a post-2015 debate, the role of corporations and their interests in development sector change significantly, Lora Verheecke underlines in a recently published article. While the UN supports new partnerships with the private sector and aid flows to the private sector are increasing, this has impacts on the multilateral systems and states. According to Verheecke, it is time to constrain corporations’ influence setting the development agenda and to remind [...]
UN Women launches a new Private Sector Leadership Advisory Council. The council, which is expected to offer advice to accelerate women's economic empowerment, end violence against women and help to close the funding gap for UN Women, is comprised of ten corporate executives from companies ranging from Tupperware to Chanel to Anglo American. The council is supposed to provide the foundation for further "Golden Triangle" partnerships, as they are being called, between corporations, governments and civil society. The council will [...]
The European Commission (EC) published an action plan which includes proposals to further private sector engagement in developing countries. The EC’s policy paper is an attempt to redraw European development cooperation to encourage policy change. By looking closer to the policy paper, Eurodad states that the EC misses to tackle the fact that main European impacts on private sector in developing countries are driven by European policies in other areas like trade, agriculture or tax. In doing so, the EC [...]
The Open Working Group (OWG) established a draft 'chapeau' for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in its 11th session in New York. The text consists of two pages which will accompany the framework of the goals and is sent to all Member States. Already beforehand, developing countries stressed that the narrative have to reflect inter alia an inclusion of the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR). Many key developing countries recognize the reference to CBDR in the chapeau. Nevertheless [...]
Latin America cautions against partnerships without effective governance
Third World Network (TWN) picks up on the debate over the performance of the private sector as contributor to the Post-2015 Agenda. Opinions over its role at UN level are dividing, according to TWN. Some in the international community recognize the private sector as crucial partners. In contrast, an increasing number of civil society organizations and networks worldwide express their substantive concerns over private sector financing for development. In line with this, Latin American countries like Brazil call attention to [...]
Human Rights Policy Brief
As the negotiation of the post-2015 development agenda further evolves from broad ideas to more and more specific targets, the question of how to sufficiently finance sustainable development becomes increasingly important. Prior to the 11th session of the Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals between May 5 and May 9 organizations Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) and Christian Aid published a policy briefing tackling exactly this issue. In order to ensure sufficient, equitable and accountable financing [...]
The International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion is a coalition of organizations and networks that support women’s right to safe, legal abortion, with members in 108 countries across the globe. Our aims are to promote universal access to safe, legal abortion as a women’s health and human rights issue, and to support women’s autonomy to make their own decisions whether and when to have children and have access to the means of acting on those decisions without risk [...]
UN General Assembly discusses monitoring and accountability in the new development agenda
Presentation by Social Watch coordinator Roberto Bissio at the Interactive Dialogue “Elements for a Monitoring and Accountability Framework for the Post-2015 Development Agenda” convened by the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations
Some four thousand years ago, King Hammurabi had the laws of his domains between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers carved in stone and placed in front of his palace. The laws were written in the plain language of the people, not in the arcane idiom [...]
